Resilient barrel supporting device for firearms



June 21, 1960 J. K. HAMIL ETAL 2,941,326

RESILIENT BARREL SUPPORTING DEVICE FOR FIREARMS Filed May '7, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIGJ INVENTORS JAMES K. HAMIL June 21, 1960 J. K. HAMIL ET AL 2,941,326

RESILIENT BARREL SUPPORTING DEVICE FOR FIREARMS 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 7, 1958 INVENTORS JAMES K.HAM CHARLIE S C.

June 21, 1960 J. K. HAMIL ET AL 2,941,326

RESILIENT BARREL SUPPORTING DEVICE FOR FIREARMS Filed May '7, 1958 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG.3

INVENTORS JAMES K-HAMIL BY CHARLES C.WEBB

RESILIENT BARREL SUPPORTING DEVICE FOR FIREARMS pany, Inc., Bridgeport, Comm, a corporation of Delaware Filed lvlay 7, 1958, Ser. No. 733,535

6 Claims. (Cl. 42-75) This invention relates generally to rifles and more par ticularly to a device for supporting the barrel of a rifle relative to the forestock.

It is a well-known fact that when a firearm is discharged, the forces which are exerted combine to cause the entire arm to jump and the barrel to vibrate with more or less violence before the projectile leaves the muzzle of the barrel. If at the moment the projectile leaves the barrel for successive shot, the muzzle of the barrel is in the same relative position in its vibratory cycle, the successive projectiles may be expected to strike with a consistent center of impact. It is also a wellknown fact that the fitting of a barrel in the stock of the firearm or bedding, as it is known in the trade, exerts a considerable influence upon the vibratory motion of the barrel and therefore on the accuracy with which the It has been a common practice in the industry to bed the receiver of the rifle into substantially perfect contact with the wood of the stock over substantially the entire lower half of the receiver and to clear away the forestock along and beneath the barrel to avoid any substantial contact between barrel and forestock, except at a point adjacent the front end of the forestock. It has been the practice to fit the forward end of the forestock quite closely to the barrel in such a way that the formtock exerts an upward pressure on the barrel of several pounds. While this combination produces excellent accuracy, it does so only while. the original conditions of bedding are maintained. The warpage of the wooden forestock attendant upon variations in temperature and humidity, may readily cause aideparture from these ideal conditions. As a result, there has been a growing tendency for the users of target rifles, and other firearms intended to produce extreme accuracy, to use adjustable bedding devices. These adjustable bedding devices provide means for establishing a zero setting for any particular rifle in combination with means for reproducibly applying any desired amount of pressure. between the forestock and the barrel. While such devices have enjoyed a comparatively wide sale, they require a precision adjustment which must be made each time the rifle is to be used. It is the particular object of our invention to produce a barrel bedding or supporting device which seeks its own zero setting and automatically compensates for warpage or other distortion of. the gun stock, but is at the same time always capable of providing optimum support and vibration damping for the barrel. We contemplate that these objectives may be best attained by attaching rigidly to the barrel the piston unit of a modified dashpot, this piston being so mounted in its cylinder as to have a relatively large degree of freedom for movement along the axis of the piston as well as transversely thereto. Within the cylinder we prefer to provide a viscous damping medium, which is relatively fluent when exposed to forces which act over a relatively long period of time but oif'ers substantial and preferably highly elastic opposition, to fast changes. A very desirable damping medium is found inthe putty- 2,41,25 Patented June 21, 1960 like elastic plastic siloxane derivative compositions known as bouncing putty or silly putty. Desirable results may also be achieved by using as the damping media, various viscous silicone fluids which are characterized by remarkably constant viscosity with extreme temperature changes and which are in themselves highly elastic fluids and frequently are used in the socalled liquid springs. Such damping media offer substantially no opposition to the relative changes of position between barreland forestock occasioned by warping or other temperature and humidity-caused distortions of the stock, but permit the barrel and forestock to assume without substantial opposition their normal unstrained relative positions. However, when the barrel is subjected to the vibratory forces applied during the discharge of a projectile, the damping media supplies a very substantial opposition to any change in the relative positions of barrel and forestock and, therefore assists in supporting the barrel for the most accurate delivery of the projectile and materially dampens or reduces the amplitude of the vibrations thereof.

The exact nature of the invention, as well as other objects and advantages thereof, will become more apparent from consideration of the following specification referring to the attached drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view through the barrel and forestock of a firearm embodying a preferred form of our invention.

Figure 2 is a similar view, showing a modified form of our invention.

Figure 3 isa longitudinal sectional view, showing another modification of our invention.

Referring to the drawings by characters of reference, it will be seen that the firearm illustrated comprises the usual barrel 1 and forestock 2, the barrel being at this point inletted into the forestock with substantially the lower half of the barrel enclosed by the forestock but separated therefrom by a sufficient space to avoid any actual contact. This is a condition which is known in the trade as free bedding of the barrel. With a rifle which is completely free bedded, the barrel is relatively immune to the results of warpage or other distortion of the stock, but receives no support therefrom and vibrates without any substantial damping of its vibratory motion as each shot is tired. A damping. cylinder 3 is firmly supported in a vertical bore in the forestock 2 by means including the screw '4 (see Fig. =1). This cylinder receives a piston assembly 5 which is rigidly secured to the barrel by a threaded or other suitable connection 6. The piston assembly is formed. either integrally or by an assembly process to provide a piston flange 7 and coil springs 8 confined between the piston flange and packing flanges 9 serve to urge the packing flanges longitudinally along the shaft of the piston and into sealing contact with the end flanges l0 and 11 provided for the cylinder. The entire space within the piston is filled with a suitable damping medium. For example, one of the elastic plastic siloxane derivative compositions such as those shown in Patents No. 2,644,805, or No. 2,541,851. To insure that the cylinder is completely filled when the assembly is completed, an. excess amount of damping fluid will ordinarily be provided and ejected through a bleeder opening 12 as assembly is completed by screwing on the cap having; the flange 11. The bleeder opening may be suitably closed as by a screw 13. To assist in assembling the device to the barrel of a rifle, the piston assembly 5 extends entirely through the cylinder 3 and is provided with a screw slot 14 by which the threaded connection 6 may be tightly secured to the barrel.

It will be noted that the piston assembly is-within quite large limits-relatively free to move about within the cylinder 3. The end seals 9 are free to slide laterally relative to the caps or 11 and permit the device to accommodate itself to any reasonable amount of lateral warpage of the forestock. Similarly, the piston assembly may move axially in the cylinder in response to Vertical displacements of the stock relative to the barrel, such motion being opposed only by the light springs 8 provided to insure that the seals 9 remain in contact with the end flanges 10 and 11. While thesemotions are relatively free, it will be noted however that they involve the displacement of substantial quantities of the damping fluid either axially around the piston 7 or from one side to the other of the cylinder 3'. Accordingly, if any attempt is made to rapidly displace the piston assembly in either direction, such an attempt will be-opposed by the forces required to cause such displacement of the fluid medium. Obviously the more-viscous the damping medium, the greater will be the forces opposing fast movement of the piston assembly. 1 With the puttysurrounds the barrel 1, being secured in a semi-circular cup in the forestock 2. by means including a retaining screw 26. The cylinder assembly is completed by a pair of end caps 27 in sealing engagement with a pair of sealing washers 28, urged into contact with the end caps by means of springs 29. 'The springs 29 bear upon a flange on the piston 30 which is concentric with the bafr'el and tightly secured thereto by means including the crosspins 31 which are driven through appropriately aligned holes in the piston and in the barrel. As in the other forms of our invention, the cylinder is adapted to be filled with a viscous damping medium of one of the types previously discussed and as in the other forms a bleeder opening 32 adapted to be closed by a screw 33 is provided to insure complete filling of the system.

As in the other forms of our invention, this embodimer t permits the barrel to readily assume a normal unstrained position relativeto the forestock, for the damplike semi-solid siloxane derivatives previously referred i to, used as damping fluids, it will be found that the damping fluid behaves as a substantially elastic solid when subjected to forces acting overshort periods of time, but will flow with ease when operated on by forces continuing over a long period of time. We have, therefore, in this arrangement a device which permits the stock and barrel to assume within reasonable limits any desired relative position without strains existing between them. However, when exposed to the vibratory motion ing-medium-offers no, substantial resistance to long-time displacements of the barrel, either laterally, vertically or longitudinally in response to variations caused by changes in temperature or moisture content of the wood of the forestock. Although we have shown and described only and other shock loads incident to the discharge of the firearm, the subject device behaves as a substantially solid elastic connection between the barrel and the forestock, thus utilizing to the maximum extent the mechanical support provided by the forestock to the barrel.

In the form shown, the device is best adapted to the use of one of the semi-solid putty-like substances as a damping medium, but -with obvious improvements in the fluid seals provided at the contacting surfaces it should be readily apparent that less viscous damping media-for example, the silicone hydraulic fluids of the type used in liquid springs-could be readily utilized with'this device. 7 v

In Figure 2 we have shown a modified form of our invention adapted like that shown in Figure lto be used with a barrel 1 which is free bedded in forestock 2. The damping cylinder 15 of this modification is firmly secured in a vertical bore in the forestock by means including the screw 16. The damping cylinder'receives a piston assembly comprising a spherical piston 17, a sealing washer 18, and a sealing washer spring 19- engaged between the ball and lower surface of the washer. This assembly is retained within the cylinder by means of the threaded cap 20. The piston may be secured to the barrel by means of a threaded connection as indicated at 21, a hole 22 being providedfor engagement by an appropriate spanner wrench to complete the threaded joint. The cylinder 15 will be completely filled with a viscous damping medium and the filling may either be completed or excess material extruded through the bleeder hole 23 which is closed in use .by an appropriate screw 24. In use, this modification of our invention operates in substantially the same manner as that shown in Figure 1 with the possible exception that the spherical piston 17 provides a more efficient damping of lateral vibrations than is provided by the piston assembly shown in Figure 1. This modification 2 is best adapted to use with one of the elastic plastic siloxane derivative compositions of the semi-solid type but, like the other modification, may with suitable improvement in fluid sealing. means be readily adapted to use with one of the more fluid silicone derivatives of the type used in liquid springs.

The form of our invention illustrated in Figure 3 is 1. In a firearm, a barrel, a stock, a

three specific embodiments of our invention, it should be obvious that other modifications thereof are possible and practicable. Accordingly we do not consider that our invention is limited by the scope of these specific disclosures. For-an exact definition of the limits which we place upon the scope of our invention, reference is made to the claims appended hereto.

We claim:

chamber in said stock and provided with an opening therein, a plastically deformable pliable material in said chamber, said material being resiliently greatly resistant to sudden deformation, an element rigidly secured to said barrel and extending into said chamber and embedded in said material to form a yielding supporting connection between said stock and said barrel. 2. A barrel bedding device for a firearm comprising in combination a barrel, a stock having a passage therethrough, a first end of said passage opening adjacent to said barrel, a closure element for the second end of said passage, a mass of plastically yieldable material having high resistance to sudden deformation confined in said passageway, a'connector element rigidly secured to said barrel and projecting into said first end of said passageway and into-engagement with said mass of plastic material.

3. A barrel bedding device for a firearm comprising in combination a barrel, a stock having a passage therethrough, a first end of said passage opening adjacent to said barrel, a closure element for the second end of said passage, a mass of yieldable plastic material having high resistance to sudden deformation, yet easily completely flowingly yieldable as a viscous liquid under slowly applied deforming forces confined in said passageway, a connector element rigidly secured to said barrel and projecting into said first end of said passageway and 'intoengagement with said mass of plastic material, said 7 connector element having an enlarged portion thereof likewise adapted to be used with a barrel 1 which is free bedded in a forestock 2. In this form of our invention the damping cylinder 25 is concentric with and substantially totally surrounded bysaid material.

4. A barrel bedding device for a firearm comprising in combination abarrel, a stock having a passage therethrough, a first end of said passage opening adjacent to said barrel, a closure element for the second end of said passage, a mass of yieldable plastic material having high resistance to sudden deformation, yet easily completely flowingly yieldable under deforming forces applied over an appreciable time interval, confined in said passageway, a connector element rigidly secured to said barrel and projecting into said first end of said passageway and into engagement with said mass of plastic material, said coninector element having an enlarged portion thereof substantially totally surrounded by said material, said closure element being adjustable in said passageway to vary the position of said material and said barrel with respect to said stock.

5. In a firearm, a barrel, a stock, a yieldable supporting connection between said barrel and said stock comprising a mass of plastically yieldable material greatly resistant to sudden deformation supported in said stock and in operative engagement with said barrel, and means on said stock supporting said mass of material in operative engagement with said barrel, said last-mentioned means manually adjustable to gradually vary the position of said mass of material and said barrel with respect to said stock.

6. In a firearm, a barrel, a stock, a chamber in said stock and provided with an opening therein, a plastically deformable siloxane derivative composition in said chamber, said composition being resiliently highly resistant to sudden deforming forces, an element secured to said 'barrel and extending into said chamber and embedded in said composition to form a supporting connection between said stock and barrel which firmly and solidly resists' sudden barrel vibrations during firing yet pliably adjusts to slow changes in position between said barrel and said stock.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,205,857 Marchand June 25, 1940 2,205,982 Klipsch June 25, 1940 2,589,912 Weld Mar. 18, 1952 2,841,909 Temple July 8, 1958 

